How to Teach Elementary Division

Helping Your Child with Elementary Division

When teaching division in elementary school, the first steps often involve teaching how simple division works and helping your child memorize multiplication and division facts. Next, you can show your child how to write division expressions.

Explain that the number that is being divided into parts is called the dividend and the number of parts that are being formed is called the divisor. In the problem 4 ÷ 2, the dividend is 4 and the divisor is 2. Mastering this vocabulary will make it easier for you and your child to communicate about division.

Division Activities

Your child may enjoy and benefit from interactive activities. You can start teaching division by helping your child visualize how division works. Use small objects, like candies or game markers, to visually represent problems. For instance, give your child 20 chocolate chips. Ask your child how many chocolate chips he or she would get if they were divided between ten people. How about five?

Division Games

The Internet can be a valuable resource when it comes to finding useful division games. A solid example is the free selection of games provided by Fun4theBrain.com. 'Flying High' is a game on this site that requires players to successfully navigate an airplane through storm clouds. Your child can avoid flying into birds, lightening and other debris by providing correct answers to division problems.

Division Worksheets and Quizzes

There are many websites that offer free division worksheets and quizzes for every level of elementary school. Some have random generators that you can use to create custom division exercises. There are also templates that you can use to design your own.

One of the most effective ways to create a worksheet is by using problems directly from his or her textbook. Take a number of problems from a recent unit and create new variations based on them. Although you'll want to focus on the problems that your child struggles with the most, be sure to include some problems that your child can solve easily to boost his or her confidence.